BMA to set up disaster prevention center, northern locals warned of flash floods

BANGKOK, 29 May 2014 – In light of this month’s quake in the North, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is drafting a plan to establish a center to handle the disaster prevention and mitigation in the future.

Bangkok Deputy Governor Pussadee Tamthai revealed that the center to be set up would particularly deal with management of evacuation routes in emergency cases.

Meanwhile, Group Captain Somsak Kaosuwan, Director of the National Disaster Warning Center, has played down public concerns over continuing aftershocks along the northern fault line triggered by the recent earthquake in Chiang Rai, saying even though aftershocks still occur, they are not dangerous, and their frequency and intensity will ease and eventually die down.

He said that the seismological activities that are facing the northern people are normal occurrences as the earth is adjusting itself after a heavy quake. More than 1,000 aftershocks have shaken the North recently.

Gp. Capt. Somsak however warned residents residing on hilly terrains in the provinces of Phayao, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Nan, and Phrae, saying the areas are more susceptible to flash floods after the tremors.